Sunday, June 15, 2008

PRICELESS is a very loose, contemporary French re-imagining of BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S. An attractive young woman called Irene is gold-digging on the French riviera. An innocent hotel waiter called Jean falls for her, and turns into a gigolo so as to keep up with her lavish lifestyle, and persuade her that what she really wants is a life of poverty with him. That the movie slips down so easily is entirely due to the fact that the leads, Gad Elmaleh and Audrey Tautou, are photogenic. Elmaleh also displays a deep talent for physical comedy - just watch how he uses his mournful eyes!

The problem I had with PRICELESS was the nagging feeling that this was all actually rather disingenuous. It's the same problem I have with the film adaptation of BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S. It's all too light and breezy. I mean, how can we stay all frothy and romantic when what our two protagonists are really doing is turning tricks?

HORS DE PRIX opened in Belgium and France in 2006. It opened in 2007 in Poland, Latvia, Iceland, Australia, Hong Kong, Israel, Singapore, Malysia, Estonia, Spain, Greece, Italy, Finland, Turkey, Russia, Argentina, Sweden, Hungary and Romania. It opened earlier in 2008 in the US, Japan, Mexico and South Korea and opened this weekend in the UK.